Sunday, 29 January 2017

Hi
Everyone, here is another blast from the past in our sport. Time moves on, but
many problems remain the same. Please excuse any weak text, as this was from a
CD document that was photographs that had to be photographed again and then
manipulated back into text, not always successful, some gibberish.

Here
is the AGCs: Urgent Call for a 2-Mile Net-Free Reserve in Juan de Fuca Strait, 1967.

The Amalgamated
Conservation Society maintains there is a serious problem in the sports fishery
in areas 17, 18, 19 and 20. We point out also that the two departments, i.e.
Federal and Provincial Fisheries, are also on record as stating there is
definitely a serious problem.

On the
Provincial level, after a study of the situation, Hr. R. McMinn in his report
states:

“In Southern
Vancouver Island waters the sportsmen’s share of chinook and coho salmon has
decreased significantly in the last few years. In these waters, it appears that
if sport or commercial catches of chinook and coho are to increase, it will
have to be either at the expense of the other fishery or as a result of
increased salmon production because, at the moment, there appears to be an
inverse relationship between commercial and sport catches of chinook and coho
(when one goes up the other goes down).”

That there has
been a marked decline in coho catches by sports and putter fishermen in Juan de
Fuca Strait co-incidental with the build up of the net fleet in Juan de Fuca
since 1957 and particularly since 1960 can be confirmed by sports and putter
fishermen who fished that area before the wall of nets.

The Federal Fisheries department has absolutely no figures
(from lack of studies) to back up or deny these facts and it is 10 years too
late for them to start now to make a comparison. Although the sports catch
effort has increased 100% in the last 7 or 8 years, our catch has not risen but
has taken a tremendous decrease.

We would point
out that the proposal for a 2-mile net free reserve is a compromise between
sports fishermen and commercial interests after several other efforts for a
solution.

First it was
asked that the net fleet be cut to at least half the boats of the 1960 fleet or
that netters from both countries be pulled back from Juan de Fuca Strait to do
their fishing closer to river mouths where they could be rigidly controlled and
specific salmon runs could be protected. Then, because of the consideration
that Canadian commercial fishermen had the advantage in Juan de Fuca Straits at
getting first crack at getting American fish, a 1-mile corridor was proposed.

Commercial
men claimed this was too great a hardship on them and the compromise of a 2-mile
net free salmon reserve was proposed by the Amalgamated Conservation Society.
This is the absolute minimum to bring any relief to sports fishermen and this
would have to be continuous to be effective.

For
enforcement, net fishermen are used to boundaries. The international boundary is
patrolled now and there is little trouble with the ocean surf line up and down
the whole coast. We also point out that the Americans have a 3-mile net reserve
and they control it - why can't we?

There are many sport fishing regulations
that are being enforced to the limit; example - Saanich Inlet. If we can regulate
all the other restrictions, then why not the corridor? We would reiterate, if
enforcement becomes an insurmountable hurdle, then we are certainly moving
backwards instead of up-dating to handle situations regarding our natural
resources that are
bound to appear as our country expands.

The sports fishermen are asking that a 2-mile net free reserve
be established for a trial period starting this season (1967) when it is feared
that the expected pre­ponderance of netters over big runs of pinks and Sockeye
could do most harm conservation-­wise to coho.

The
fisheries department could then undertake a positive statistical study to prove
the worth of the net free reserve. The start of this is shown through a
telegram sent to the department, at the entrance this year, netters caught nearly
400,000 coho while sports fishermen immediately behind the net line in area
nineteen end twenty caught less than 200 coho, Labour Day weekend. The three-day
sport fishing derby in Victoria area saw 400 sports fishermen catch only 12
coho while commercial netters during the same week caught 132,148.

What
is going to happen to us this year when they are going to allow 4 days netting
per week?

It
has been said that there is no evidence that salmon migrating through Juan de
Fuca Straits ever made a fishery, and yet in the Progress Summary of the Juan
de Fuca Chinook end Coho Salmon Investigation put out by the federal government
it states: "The sport catch of coho salmon in this region is primarily:

1. A late fall to
early spring grilse fishery mainly in Saanich Inlet.

2. The harvest of adult
coho passing through this area from outside waters.

3. The harvest of fall
coho in the Cowichan Bay area.”

The fact that
there is no documentary evidence in the Juan de Fuca area lies with the fisheries department in that there
has been little or no study or research carried out in relation to the sports
fishery.

We are prepared to produce any number of sworn affidavits by sports
fishermen who met with outstanding success during pre-netting years and have
experienced the decline since the build-up of the net fishery.

It has also been said that the commercial troll fishery in this area
does not exist because, due to the change in feeding habits, the fish will not
take. We suggest that the troll fishery in this area does not exist because
better harvests naturally can be obtained by trollers in Swiftsure and Big Bank
area where they meet fish on their way in and it stands to reason that it is better
to harvest the pool of two million fish before the nets get at them rather than
a pool of one million after the nets have taken their harvest, plus spooked the
remainder. In addition, the trollers, by moving out further, have a chance at
American coho moving toward the Columbia and Westport, etc.

Also, with regard to the contention that mature fish cannot be taken by
troll, we point out that the putter fleet at Bamfield who now fish ahead of the
net lines, have harvested fantastic amount of mature coho. The sportsmen have
success in Cowichan Bay, Oyster river, etc. and these are mature fish.

Sports fishermen believe that the wall of nets skim off the surface fish
which they have been used to catching and drives others deeper beyond the reach
of sports fishermen. We have maintained for several years that area 20 in Juan
de Fuca Strait is a collect­ing and feeding area for coho salmon preparing for
their migration to inland waters.

Here are a few passages from the State of Washington Department of Fisheries
book published in February, 1960: The treaty ban on ocean net fishing as drawn
restricted U.S. fishermen from fishing the ocean outside the three-mile limit
off Port San Juan, Pachena area, along Vancouver Island, and the area south and
westward of Tatoosh Island. The Bonilla/Tatoosh line in effect gave Canadian
fishermen in the newly developing fishing area a distinct advantage over U.S.
fishermen in the Strait fishery for the following reasons:

The natural conditions prevailing in the area off the Canadian shore
inside the Bonilla/Tatoosh line, in contrast to conditions prevailing along the
Washington shore, provide for a large-scale mingling of races and stocks of
salmon collected in the area prior to their migration to spawning streams along
the coast of Washington, east in the Strait and lower Puget Sound and to the
Gulf of Georgia and Fraser River areas. This area also embraces the major
migratory route of salmon stocks migrating eastward. Thus this area provides an
ocean fishery for Canadian fishermen while Amer1can fishermen fishing for the
same species are largely confined to an area 70 to 80 miles further inside the
Strait.

Joint investigations by the Canadian and American agencies demonstrated
the following:

1.Racial composition of salmon from Swiftsure lightship to Pillar Point
inside the Strait of Juan de Fuca (comprising the study area) are the same and
made up of numerous races. They originate to the greatest extent from Puget
Sound and the Gulf of Georgia and to a lesser degree from Oregon, Washington
and British Columbia coastal streams.

2. Silvers mill about in the Bonilla-Tatoosh area
from June until September with early races moving into Puget Sound during July
and August.

We think these statements back up our beliefs.

Many people believe that if you have a 4-day fishery and lift the nets
for 3 days that three sevenths of the fish will pass through. This is not the
case; many of these coho move around in Area 20 and perhaps are in the area
several days or even weeks before they move on. We suggest the fish that evade
the solid wall of nets are spooked and travel past the lower island and are
deep or outside, beyond the each of sports fishermen.

In fact, last September some of our sports fishermen ventured out past
Race Rocks with hand lines and five-pound weights and had little problem
limiting out on mature coho in 20 and 25 fathoms of water. Unfortunately, this
is not sports fishing and is no answer to our problem. We know the coho are
passing through our waters outside and deep. These are our spawning escapement
but they are completely useless to the sports fishery.

The 2-mile net free move would allow a proportion of the fish to come
through in an unmolested stream of sufficient numbers to allow hook and line
fishermen to have a reason­able amount of success and a comparatively equitable
share of this, their historic fishery.

The problems are twofold and one is very important for the conservation
and preservation of coho runs. We feel that indiscriminate netting is wiping
out specific runs of early coho which mill around and are subjected to netting,
week after week.

We accept the fact that large escapements travel through Juan de Fuca
Strait. These are late run ocean type coho destined for large river systems,
Fraser etc., but the earlier run coho destined for smaller gulf rivers, as well
as the bigger rivers, has decreased tremendously due to the unselective Juan de
Fuca fishery.

The average commercial catch of the early run summer coho (to September
1st) in the Strait of Juan de Fuca has declined from 70% (1951-58) to 43%
(1959-04) of the total catch, a decline of nearly 30%.

A decline of 80% in the coho escapements of the Goldstream, Chemainus
and Nanaimo Rivers after the expansion of the herring and salmon net fisheries
in these waters are evident. Good commercial catches of the late migrating fall
coho (after September 1st) in the Juan de Fuca Strait and good escapements of
this stock into the Cowichan River does not eliminate the responsibility of
ensuring adequate stocks of the resident type smaller coho on which to a great extent
the many million dollar sport fishing industry depends.

The argument that a Bonilla net free reserve could seriously restrict a major
Canadian net fishery in Area 19 is not reasonable as many salmon as before, can
be taken with additional netting time allowed as compensation if necessary.

The troll-free zone would not hamper the international fishing agreement
as under the terms of the convention there is a 50-50 split.

We stress the urgency of the 2-mile net free reserve in 1967 because of
the anticipated double the number of netting days and a bigger fleet of net
boats then ever before to fish over forecast fantastic runs of sockeye and
pinks with absolutely no consideration by the International Pacific Salmon
Commission of Coho and Spring Salmon for conservation or for sports fishermen.

Sunday, 22 January 2017

Dead reckoning is the process of
determining where you are based on a known past position and advancing from where
you are to where you want to go. GPS systems have pretty much done away with
dead reckoning for day boaters because they give latitude and longitude,
distance to and from intended ports, and show the boat among land features on
the screen.

But if the GPS kicks the bucket, you don’t
have charts and you can’t see land – in fog, for instance – be prepared to dead
reckon. Your humble compass and boat speed are all you need in faster boats.

Finding
your way home in Faster Planing boats

In a power boat that moves far faster than
the speed of off-course drift, it is a simple matter of turning the boat 180
degrees to the return bearing and traveling at a set planing speed. If you are
traveling at 26 kph, for example, you will be back near a port 13 km away in 30
minutes (Most speedometers also read in mph, and so a set time can also be
calculated for mph, the same being true for speedometers in knots). Do remember
to pull up on the throttle before shore leaps out of the fog to grab you.

Finding
your way home in Slower Displacement Hull
Boats

Estimate your position immediately because your
boat is drifting off course based on water current, wind direction and boat
speed. The sooner you say, I think I am 13 km from port, the more likely you
are close to that spot you plot on your chart.

Determine speed the old-fashioned way: tie
a bucket to a line of known distance, throw it over board and stop your watch
when the line is taut. That gives you metres per minute, say, and thus speed.

The compass rose on the chart will give you
your return bearing. Divide the distance from your position to port by speed
and you have the hours to reach it. Charts also give speed and direction of
currents and so, accounting for that and wind, you can plot a drift-adjusted course
to arrive at a better estimation of where you will end up.

Better
Yet, Be Prepared

A boater should always have paper charts
and a compass, even on a boat with a GPS. Before each trip, sit down and
calculate the distance between ports. Divide this distance by boat speed and
you have the hours it will take to do the trip.

And if you have been fishing for hours in
fog, and didn’t catch your GPS going down, it may be wiser to sit tight until
it clears because you may not have a very good idea of where you are. Before I
had a GPS, I once ended up off Lopez Island in the US San Juans for this
reason. I didn’t realize how far I had drifted on the flood from the Quarantine
Buoy near Constance Bank, where I had started fishing, and thus my dead
reckoning was many miles wrong. I got a compass bearing from someone’s fishing charts
on the US side and headed back on it, only to have engine problems as I almost hit
Discovery Island. I radioed Oak Bay Marina for a compass bearing home, and with
my kicker at top rpms, got drifted south into the fog and finally had to radio
for a tow in. Most embarrassing.

Alive
or Dead from Dead Reckoning

I and my significant other – not a boater –
had the scare of a lifetime doing dead reckoning in the fog. Heading for La
Conner, I had done a dead reckoning calculation – ahead of time – from Discovery
Island to the south tip of Lopez, one hour 13 minutes at a set speed.

On the way across, we passed over the wake
of a freighter, something that haunts me to this day. We were very fortunate
not to run into it, and have been killed. Also, trying to keep on course with a
compass at planning speed is very hard because the needle swings from left to
right, back and across the compass bearing you want. The result is making a lot
of corrections, either to port or starboard, on gut instinct, to stay on
course.

At one hour, I opened the front hatch and
strained to see Lopez. Mist settled on my glasses and so my partner, behind the
window, actually saw the shoreline before I did. I was standing left hand on
the wheel, and right hand on the throttle. Yanking back on the gas, we ended up
through the kelp bed and far too close to the rocks.

I backed us out, and followed the shore
visually until we hit the south end a half mile later. In other words, dead
reckoning was off by half a mile because of the flood tide, as we did indeed
come on land after one hour 13 minutes.

But the tale did not end there. I had dead
reckoned Lopez to Deception Pass at 12 minutes on a particular heading and
speed. And away we went, compass needle swinging back and forth. On the Whidbey
Island side, after 12 minutes, I almost ran into someone fishing in the fog.
From their charts, I was given another compass bearing angling north, as in I
had almost hit the wall a mile south of the channel – in only 12 minutes.

We passed through Deception safely, but
that wasn’t the end of the tale. Following my charts, I was going to stay on a
contour line until I picked up the channel markers for La Conner, the line of
which I had seen on another trip south. Again at planning speed, I had another
heart attack, when out of the fog, a ferry rose up like a wall and past back
into the fog across my path. It didn’t see me. And again, we were lucky.

The only real luck was that I came right
upon the deepest marker where I anticipated it – if you look at the contours on
the chart, going closer to shore there is a wide apron of less than 25 feet
deep in that area. So keeping just off the ledge line, you should, as we did,
luckily, come on the marker, and follow the channel to the docks of our hotel
on the inside passage.

As I heaved a sigh of relief, and we were
trundling our bags up the dock, we passed a woman so drunk, not only could she
not stand up, talking was out of the question, as her
head hung low. She was being assisted by two guys, one under each arm pit, and
her feet were actually dragging on the wharf behind her.

It turned out that they had left Anacortes
and become disoriented in Fidalgo Bay, where the north entrance to Swinomish
Channel starts. So, they opted to drift until the fog disappeared and then find
the channel. They had drunk so much hard liquor that while the guys were
plastered, the woman was FUBARed as the expression goes.

I was able, as the person responsible for
our safety, to go through an enormous amount of adrenaline, and as wide awake
as possible, get us to port. And there were those lucky things as well. But
these people, would simply have been mowed down by a larger boat, so drunk they
were. Or they would have presented themselves to a boat like mine, coming out
of the fog in a split second, where they would not have been expected and
killed us all.

This also turned out to be they day that
Princess Diana died. And it is commemorated as a humdinger of a sex poem in, The Hunger, my third book of poems, as The
Day Diana Died. May all your fog-shrouded expeditions end in a warm safe place.

About Me

I won the national RODERICK HAIG- BROWN AWARD, 2016, for environmental writing, largely for this blog (www.fishfarmnews.blogspot.com) that has become a global portal for the environmental damage made by Norwegian-style fish farms.
I won the Art Downs Award for 2012 for sustained and outstanding writing on environmental issues, in my case, fish farms.
The award was based on 10 columns on fish farm issues in the Times Colonist newspaper, three public submissions to the Cohen Commission on Fraser sockeye and this blog.
If you want to book me to speak, for a lecture, talk, or panel on fish farm environmental damage, contact me on this blog by leaving a message on a post.